A blog by Terry Pro

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Monthly Archives: November 2013

A nice restaurant in a nasty hotel. This is the easiest way I can sum up the Osborne Village Café. If you are unaware where the OVC resides, you can find it nuzzled in Osborne Village Motor Inn on Osborne. The Zoo is known for its hardcore music shows and hip Thursday hang outs, but now it’s got one more thing to offer… delicious food.

After undergoing a rebrand earlier this year, the Osborne Village Café has been rejuvenated, and honestly, I am quite impress by the charm of this place. For such a dive of a hotel, the bright white and green interior really brings this place to life. Although the clientele was mostly young bucks, there were a few families taking in the vibe as well.

Now let’s take a look at The Club Mansion. Their signature sandwich aptly named due to its height was a breath of fresh air. It’s even hard to judge it on the clubhouse rating system because of its uniqueness. But I knew I had to check it out after Marion Warhaft gave it props in a Winnipeg Free Press article.

This club packs a fusion of flavors that I can’t even put my finger on. One thing I do know though is that you’re going to need those fingers tightly gripped to keep it in one piece. Slammed between two pieces of bread are turkey, lettuce, melted cheddar cheese, tomato, cranberry dijonnaise (not sure if that made it into mine), and pork belly. Yes, you read that right – pork belly. “It’s the same kind of meat, just done differently,” said head chef Leighton Fontaine.

This sandwich is quite tasty, but if you were looking for a traditional clubhouse I would advise going somewhere else. The one thing I couldn’t get into was the homemade ketchup. It was too sweet and just wasn’t for me.

Hip, casual and trendy are a few words to sum up the joint. But don’t let that fool you. Yea, you are bound to run into someone you know, but you are both there for the same reason… a killer meal.

First off, I have to start this post by letting everyone know that this wasn’t my first visit to Elements. About 6 months ago I went to try the clubhouse, and I got denied because it “wasn’t offered before 3.“ This didn’t sit well with me since lunchtime is the ideal time for a club. Now, 6 months later, it’s time to finally get a crack at their club.

Elements is on the street-level of the Richardson College building at the University of Winnipeg. This fancy new building serves as home for the sciences and suitability wing of the university. The restaurant is partnered with the Diversity Food Services initiative, which aims at providing local food that meets sustainability goals while also meeting employment opportunity goals. If you are interested in the finer details – go read about it HERE.

The building is very modern, sleek, and spaceship-ish. Huge windows look out on to Portage and for one tiny millisecond you have a ‘big-lights big-city’ feeling. I must say, it felt quite nice sitting in there enjoying the LEDs.

Now that I’ve babbled enough about the place, let’s dig into the food and see if this baby has been worth the wait. The club, unfortunately, was pretty bland. You have your choice of focaccia bun, rye or harvest grain bread, and the fixins are standard. They use roasted turkey shaved super thin and stacked, but for me, this sandwich didn’t stack high on the club-rating scale. Taste was lacking and price was pricey as my whole meal came out to around $30. One thing this club has going for it is has a very clean and healthy feel.

Another downside was that I ordered a soup, and when the club was ready the waitress brought it out and said they are out of soup. It took another 6 minutes to get the potatoes and by that time the club was cold!

Elements is a nice restaurant, and I appreciate what they do; unfortunately the club very average. I’m sure I’ll be back though.